Tip of the Week

The Decline of the High-Toss Serve and Why You Should Learn It.

Pong Power Pins Proposal

Martial arts have colored belts. For many years people have proposed that table tennis adopt something similar, but designed for table tennis. But nobody could ever decide just what it should be. Here is my proposal.  

1. USATT should have specially made Pong Power Pins, numbered every 100 points from 1000 to 2800, which would be sold at slightly above cost to players as they reach these 100-point milestones.
2. To qualify at each level, a player would need to both reach that rating level in tournament play, and beat at least three players at that rating or higher in tournament play. This latter is to make sure the player didn't just have a fluky tournament that gave them an inaccurate rating, as often happens; three wins at a level is a minimum goal for one who wishes to attain that level.
3. Once a player qualifies for a pin, he would send in the needed fee ($5-$7?), and USATT would send that person a pin.
4. The system would be administered by a newly-created USATT Ratings Committee, which would presumably also advise on other ratings matters. However, the actual sending out of the Pong Power Pins would be done by USATT Headquarters.   
5. The design of the Pong Power Pins would be done by a contest, with the creator of the winning design getting a free five-year USATT membership. The winning design should prominently display the actual rating achieved (such as 1800), and also obviously be table tennis related. For example, the rating achieved might be inside a stylishly designed ping-pong paddle.
6. A color scheme would be used for the pins, perhaps the following: 1000-1400 (red); 1500-1900 (green); 2000-2400 (blue); 2500 and up (gold).
7. Since ratings are online from 1994 to the present, players who qualified during that period could apply at any time for a pin. Players who may have qualified from before 1994 must present evidence that they qualified, normally with copies of rating lists from pre-1994 magazines. Players from before 1994 would only need to show they achieved the required rating, and would not be required to have three wins at the required level.
8. Players would be encouraged to wear their Pong Power Pins at tournaments and at other table tennis activities.

Weekend Warrior

I should write a book on how to beat players without really doing anything. I'm feeling so old and stiff these days that it seems as if I'm barely doing anything when I play. And yet this past weekend, in practice matches with many of our top players, I went undefeated, winning nearly every match 3-0, with none going five. (My final record for the weekend was 13-0, losing a grand total of two games.) Either I'm playing really good without really playing really good, or no one can take my tottering about the court seriously. Anyway, for the weekend I won matches against players rated roughly (I'm rounding these off a bit) 2250, 2230, 2180, 2100, and a mess of players from 1800-2100. At one point I told someone I've never been so tired in my life - and then I went out and beat the 2230 three straight, with two of the games at 3 and 4.

Okay, how am I winning without seemingly doing anything? Mostly off serve, receive, sudden forehand attacks (both looping and smashing), and a steady backhand. I'm throwing every serve I have at players (which doesn't take much physical effort) and taking their game away with effective receives (again, minimal physical effort since I'm mostly controlling the serves with short and long pushes and controlled flips rather than trying to loop all the deep ones like I used to). When I attack, it's usually one-shot affairs, where if they make a strong return my attack ends - but usually, if the first attack is well-placed, it either doesn't come back or it's a weak return. And when all else fails, I just go backhand to backhand. I don't have an aggressive backhand, and I can't stay at the table, but I can keep it on the table, deep and wide to the backhand.

After beating the 2230 player I gave him a pep talk on how he can't let players like me completely dominate with serve and receive. He was relying far too much on pure physical skills, but rarely got a chance to use them.

There was one moment of hilarity when I was playing one of our juniors, and I serve and smashed twice in a row. The kid, who is far more used to players looping than smashing, pointed at me and said, "He's using his hardbat skills!" (I normally use sponge, and loop about as much as I smash, but I'm also a hardbat player on the side where I'm an all-out hitter on the forehand while mostly chopping on the backhand.)

Table Tennis Master

Here are three new coaching articles from Table Tennis Master.

• Effective Serve Practice
• Why Service Variation is Vital
• Feed The Subconscious

Ma Long Training and Donn Olsen

Here's a video (7:25) with selections of world #1 Ma Long of China in training as he prepares for the upcoming World Championships. The video is at the Event Arena in the same building as the Werner Schlager Academy in Austria. At 5:20, you'll see Coach Donn Olsen of the U.S. walk into the video. He's been to the Schlager Academy a number of times. Donn's doing coverage of the Chinese training, and along with Kyongsook Kim (another U.S. coach) is presenting a paper at the 13th ITTF Sport Science Congress, which meets every two years at the Worlds.

Hou Yingchai vs. Daniel Gorak

Here's a video (4:34) from the ETTU Cup Final, between attacker Gorak and chopper/looper Hou, with time between points removed.

Missouri University and Alan Chu

Here's an article and video (3:08) from Vox Magazine that interviews Alan Chu, a sports psychology graduate student at Missouri University and a member of their table tennis team.

Susan Sarandon and Jimmy Fallon

The two talk ping-pong and Justin Bieber in this article and video (3:58) from Table Tennis Nation. (First you get to meet Susan's cure little white dog.)

The Dark Side of the Paddle

Here's the latest table tennis artwork from Mike Mezyan, a rather dark one as a tornado-style paddle from the seeming dark side comes down to do battle at the table in a seeming cornfield (from The Natural?). (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

Cub Scouts Build Super-Sonic Ping-Pong Ball Gun

Here's the video (2:05) as they blow up watermelons and coke cans! The balls shot out at speeds up to 883 MPH.

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Audrey and Long Pips

A while back I blogged about how I was now coaching Audrey Weisiger, the former U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Coach. I gave her another lesson on Wednesday. She's getting steadier in rallies, can push, and can now create spin with her serves. At the start she was an all-backhand player, where she sort of slashed at the ball. Hitting forehands for her was like me trying to ice skate - i.e., not natural, and pretty much against the natural order of things. However, she now has a pretty good stroke, and has hit 50 or more in a row live.

But on the backhand she still tends to stroke down on the ball, often putting backspin on the ball with her downward-stroking backhand drive (more like a push). She also has trouble returning spin serves (as do all beginners), which is problematic as her primary goal at the moment is to beat a fellow figure skating coach who beats her over and over with his backhand sidespin serve.

So on Wednesday I tried an experiment. I pulled out one of my demo long pips rackets that I keep for students to practice against, the one without sponge on a Dr. Neubauer blade (designed for long pips blocking). She tried it out, and it was like me getting off a hated and not-designed-for-human-usage ice rink! She loved it, and was able to keep the ball in play much better and more effectively. Even better, she was able to return nearly all my spin serves with the long pips.

She'll keep the inverted on the forehand, and focus on steady drives and, when the ball's up, smashing. It also gives her an inverted side to serve with. I showed her how to use the inverted to serve backhand and then flip the inverted back to the forehand. I'm letting her borrow my long-pips racket for now, but soon she'll get one for herself.

Someday perhaps I'll blog about my bad experiences with ice skating.

Serving With Spin

I used to have a bunch of striped balls that I had beginning players use when they were learning to serve with spin. They gave much better feedback than a normal ball, where beginners can't really see how much spin they are getting. At some point I lost those balls. Well, I just ordered four six-packs of "sports" ping-pong balls ($3/pack), where they are colored to look like soccer balls, basketballs, and baseballs. This'll make it a lot easier to see what type of spin they are creating. They are also good for learning to read spin, especially off a serve. They are only one-star balls, but they are 40mm. I'll blog about this after they arrive and I start using them again.

Sharara Fights Back

On Wednesday I linked to the article at Table Tennista about the allegations of corruption against ITTF President Adham Sharara by European Union President Stefano Bosi, "Adham Sharara Accused Of Long-Term Corruption In The ITTF." Here is Sharara's response, "Sharara Fights Back Against Bosi's Allegations." Sharara says, "All the allegations concerning me modifying accounts or hiding the true income are all false," and "Anyone within the ITTF has the right to run for presidency. In addition, anyone also has the right to complain or clarify any issues. Unfortunately, some one is attacking me and at the same time campaigning."

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Vs Robert Gardos

Here's a great video (7:07) that just came out of these two playing in the Champions League in Europe, with the time between points taken out. Ovtcharov of Germany is world #7, Gardos of Austria is world #32. Watch some of the backhand serves of Ovtcharov. (But guess who wins this time?)

Stiga Videos

Stiga Table Tennis has a lot of videos on their webpage - the "Stiga Movie Channel." They are divided into:

• Drill Your Skills with China National Team (6 videos)
• Promotion videos (21 videos)
• Product videos (5 videos)
• Match videos (21 videos)
• Practice videos (30 videos)
• Interviews (18 videos) 

A Touch of Magic

Here's a table tennis highlights music video (5:13) that came out last month.

The Misdirected Surprise Serve

Here it is (20 sec)! I've done this in exhibitions. ("Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No . . . it's my serve." And then you quick serve.)

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Defaults and Rating

There's been an email exchange among some USATT officials, of which I was CCed, on the subject of players defaulting tournament matches to protect their rating, It was instigated by a gentleman who was the victim of this - a player didn't want to play him, perhaps because he had long pips, and so defaulted, apparently to protect his rating. The question raised is why don't players who default matches lose rating points? It's a good question - and below is my response.

I'll jump in and give the reasons for why they do not give away rating points for a default, and then (at the end), I'll offer a possible solution.

It would be somewhat unfair to take away rating points for certain defaults. So the only way I see for a rules change that would allow a rating loss for defaults is if the referee were given the responsibility of determining if the default was "legitimate" or not. That would not be easy to determine, as someone who wanted to avoid playing a match for rating purposes could easily fake one of the below reasons. Here are some legitimate reasons why players default that have nothing to do with avoiding rating point losses - and over the course of 37 years of play, I've defaulted matches at least once for each of these reasons (except for #3 and #8), as have many others. (I'm sure there are other reasons I haven't thought of.)

1. Tournament runs late, and player has to leave.
2. Player is injured or sick.
3. Player is too tired. This happens all the time - sometimes someone older or out of shape advances in multiple events, and simply can't play all of the matches, and has to default some. This especially happens to elderly players.
4. Player is unhappy with the playing conditions and decides to drop out. If a tournament has poor lighting, a background where you have trouble seeing the ball, slippery floors, or some other such problem, a player might decide to default rather than play in such poor conditions.
5. Player's equipment is broken, defective, or stolen.
6. Player is unable to attend a tournament he entered, or is called away from the tournament unexpectedly. Some people are on call, such as doctors. Players have defaulted out of less important matches at big tournaments to do table tennis TV interviews, or to do commentating, or some other function. Or a player may be called away due to a family or work emergency.
7. Player is also a tournament official or volunteer, and he is unexpectedly needed, and so he drops out (i.e. defaults) to help run the tournament.
8. Player unexpectedly advances in a major event, and so defaults a less important event. This happens at the U.S. Open and Nationals quite a bit. When I have a top junior who is pulling off upsets and has a chance to win a major age event, I'm almost always going to advise him to drop any rating events so he can focus on the age event and a national title. The problem is the player might not know in advance he'd do so well in the age event, and so enters the rating events as well. This also happens in Men's and Women's Singles, where a player might find himself advancing deep into the draw, and so not want to tire himself out in another event, such as a rating event, some age events, hardbat, sandpaper, etc. When Dan Seemiller, in his late 50s, pulled off some upsets and advanced deep into the Men's Singles event at the 2011 USA Nationals, he defaulted his senior events to save energy for that event.

Some would argue that if a player chooses to default, he should always lose the rating points. But besides being unfair in some cases (such as reason #1 above), that would just make the rating system less accurate. We have enough trouble with under-rated players showing up and sweeping the rating events and messing up the seedings; do we really want to take away 50 points in a default from a player - and possibly multiple times if the player defaults several matches - knowing what this will mean when he shows up at his next tournament? Suppose a player is rated 1830, but defaults out of two round robin events for one of the reasons above. That could be six matches, and perhaps 200-250 rating points. His next tournament he shows up way under-rated and playing in events he should not be eligible for.

What I would suggest as a solution is to have a player who defaults lose rating points unless the referee approves the default, i.e. the defaulting player must give the referee a reason for the default, and the referee must accept it, based on guidelines from the bullet points above. I'd also limit it to a maximum of 50 points lost in one tournament from defaults. I don't think players should gain rating points from a default. There's no perfect solution, and a liar would still get away with defaulting matches to protect his rating, but it would happen less often as many players might have some difficulty flat-out lying to the referee, and sometimes the player's actions would convince the referee he is lying. Also, if a player defaults regularly, then the referee could turn him down.

I'd rather not get into a long discussion of this - I have a busy day coaching and writing tomorrow. But hopefully the above will offer some grounds for thought, discussion, and possible action by those in a position to make changes.

The Plastic Poly Ball

Here's the ITTF's report on the ball. It's 32 pages and seems pretty comprehensive with lots of scientific-looking studies - but no, I haven't read it yet. I'm hoping some of our readers will read it and report your thoughts on it. This could be a scary situation, as one thing that comes out is that the new poly ball plays differently than the current one. Do we really want that? Does the report give a strong reason for doing so?

Stance for Returning Serve

Here's the video from PingSkills (1:16), plus an article on the topic of proper stance and how far to stand from the table when receiving serve.

Table Tennis Master

Here are four new articles from Table Tennis Master.

• Encouraging Creativity in Table Tennis
• How to Manage Your Emotions
• Is 'Cho-ing' Becoming Excessive?
• Special Tips for Developing Backhand

Crystal Wang on TV

Here's the video (4:34) of Crystal and her dad getting interviewed on NBC 4 yesterday. Crystal (just turned 11 and rated 2292) just won the Hopes Trials at the North American Cup.

Texas Wesleyan University Team on TV

Here's the video (5:03) of the team after winning their tenth straight national collegiate championship, on CBS Local.

Central Florida Table Tennis Club

It's not full-time, but it's 27,000 square feet!!! Here's their web page. They have 18 tables, but with rather large courts.

Great Chopping Point

Here's a great attack versus defense point from the 2012 China Open, featuring world #1 Ding Ning versus world #11 Wu Yang, perhaps the best chopper in the women's game. When it all ends, guess how Wu wins the point?

Roman Table Tennis

I think that's Julius Caesar playing TT!

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Looping Placement

Here's something interesting I noted at the Hopes Trials, which I've also seen in the past. When a player backhand loops, he is roughly facing his opponent, and so can see where the opponent's middle is. When a player forehand loops, he faces more sideways, and the opponent is no longer in clear view. Result? Especially at the junior level and below the elite level, players seem to have far more difficulty in attacking the opponent's middle when forehand looping then when backhand looping. (The middle, in table tennis terms, is the switchover point between forehand and backhand, roughly at the playing elbow.) I watched one player nail the opponent's middle over and over with backhand loops, but when forced to do forehand loops, the player was unable to do so. (This is all true as well for basic forehands and backhands, but to a lesser extent, since players tend to turn more sideways to forehand loop than for forehand hitting.)

The solution? Practice. Look to loop at the opponent's middle at least half the time, usually the weakest spot, and see how often you can nail it. Few opponents are actually moving as you are hitting the ball, so you should be able to see where he is just before you take the shot. With practice, you'll be able to hit the middle over and over. (If an opponent is moving, then usually aim behind him, since he'll have to stop and change directions. Unless, of course, he's way out of position, in which case go for the open area.)  

Table Tennis Commentating at the North American Cup

No, I didn't get to hear any of it - I was there coaching. (I'm told I was on video at least one time, coaching Crystal Wang in the Girls' Hopes Trials.) What I've heard and read over and over was what a great job Barbara Wei did through most of the tournament - and how she was then replaced for the "big" matches at the end by someone who spoke broken and heavily accented English, and various officials. C'mon, people, Barbara was on the U.S. Junior Girls Team, trained nearly full-time for years, and speaks very clearly and intelligently. Listeners raved about her performance. What were you thinking??? (Disclaimer: Barbara came from my club, Maryland Table Tennis Center.)

I've been asked numerous times over the years to do table tennis commentating for TV. I've always turned it down. Why? I don't think I have a good speaking voice for TV. When I first began doing group coaching many years ago, I also had trouble. My solution was to take a course in public speaking. This greatly helped for those group sessions. However, I don't think I could do hours of commentating with my "public speaking" voice. I'd fall back into my normal habits, which tends to be somewhat fast and not the type of voice you want on TV. I'm far better writing.

Answers to Brain Teasers

Here are the answers to the four brain teasers from yesterday:

1. The opponent was a fish and they were playing underwater.
2. When you play an opossum, you play possum.
3. There isn't any room over the net for the ball to go over.
4. The single hair was a hare.

Table Tennista

Once again they have more international articles. Perhaps the most interesting one is the eyebrow-raising first item, where European Table Tennis Union President Stefano Bosi, who is running for ITTF President, accuses the incumbent, Adham Sharara, with this: "We found that Adham Sharara has been involved in a long-term and serious breach of the ITTF regulations and ethical standards. It is even possible that he also has civil violations. In particular, he is involved in serious violations on the Olympic charter. In addition, Sharara has established a complex system to aid him and his relatives to seek benefits from the ITTF." It also accuses him of "abuse of power and malversation of funds amounting to 20 million US dollars." I'll post Sharara's response when/if it comes out.

• Adham Sharara Accused Of Long-Term Corruption In The Ittf
• Zhang Jike Not In The Mood For Training (Photos)
• Timo Boll Excited For The Upcoming Chinese Super League (Videos)
• Japan Hopes To Win In The World Championships (Photos)
• Tiago Apolonia Leaves Ochsenhausen!
• Boll's Borussia With 1% Chance Of Reaching The Bundesliga Final (Videos)

Testing the Large Hadron Collider with a Ping-Pong Ball

Here's the article from The Atlantic.

Receiving Options

Here's a video from PingSkills (2:07) on your basic options when receiving.

ITTF Ping Pong Paix at the 2012 WTTC

"Ping Pong for Peace" was a program at the Worlds in Dortmund, Germany, where kids from Burundi were brought in to learn about table tennis. Here's the video (7:58).

Ryu Seung Min vs Bojan Tokic (German League 2012/2013) Play-Offs

Here's the video (7:58).

Justin Bieber Table Tennis

Here's an article and a new short video (about 12 sec) from Table Tennis National of Justin Bieber playing table tennis. Yep, he's still using a two-handed backhand.

Ping-Pyong

Here's a nice cartoon of the U.S. and North Korea playing ping-pong on a nuclear missile, from the Washington Post, the result of a contest, with the caption, "Ping-Pyong: A high-stakes game in which two countries smack threats back and forth with lobs, spin and backhand shots."

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Tip of the Week

Proper Practice Progression Prevents Poor Play.

Hopes Trials

The Hopes Trials were held in conjunction with the North American Cup this past weekend in Westchester, NY, at the Westchester Table Tennis Club. And here's an article (lots of photos) on the players at the North American Cup.

I saw very little of the North American Cup since I was alternating coaching matches in the Hopes Boys and Girls Trials. (There was also an all-day USATT Board Meeting on Saturday, but I missed all of that as well.) I did see some spectacular play by 2406-rated 15-year-old Allen Wang - he's moved up to where he's challenging the best players in the country, despite being roughly six feet twenty inches tall. He beat Canada's Xavier Therien (rated 2517), went seven games with Peter Li (2557), and had a spectacular match with eventual North American Cup winner Andre Ho (2522), including an incredible game which Ho finally won, 25-23 (!). I saw some of the women's final - as usual, Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang put on a show, with Zhang winning.

I wrote a lot about the tournament in my blog last Thursday, so I won't repeat all of that. I coached Crystal Wang and Derek Nie in all of their matches, which roughly alternated every hour all day long. Most of the time they practiced together to prepare for their matches, but I also joined in a lot, especially with Derek, where we had a lot of nice counterlooping duels as well as lots of serve & receive and serve & loop practice.

Crystal, rated 2292, won Girls' Singles without losing a game. She beat Ivy Liao of Canada (rated 1939) in the semifinals at 7,3,7. In the finals, she faced Amy Wang of New Jersey (rated 2168, but recently over 2200, and with a winning record against Crystal). However, this time Crystal won at 8,7,8 in a battle of Crystal's two-winged looping (often off the bounce) against Amy's more traditional hitting. Amy is looping more than before, but is forced to block when Crystal starts looping, and Crystal's loops into the forehand and middle were effective.

There were two umpires - the main umpire, and the assistant umpire, who was the scorekeeper. Throughout this match, for some reason, the scorekeeper seemed to stare at me almost continuously between points. Every time I'd glance at the scoreboard he'd be staring - almost glaring. I have no idea why; I'm not even sure if I've met him before. Perhaps he thought I was signaling or something. Several others noted this as well. Neither he nor the main umpire were staring or glaring at the other coach. 

I've never used signals when coaching; they are illegal. (Here's proof: I've been coaching matches for over 30 years, and I've many hundreds of players in tournament matches. ATTENTION, all players I've ever coached - if I've ever used signaling when I coached, please step forward now and let everyone know. But nobody's going to step forward because it never has happened.) Some umpires are overzealous in guarding against signaling, but it's somewhat silly. Any coach could get away with signaling if he wants. For example, no umpire is going to tell a coach he can't clap after a point. So a dishonest coach can, for example, work out with his player that one clap means serve short to the forehand; two claps mean short to the middle; three claps short to the backhand, and so on. Elbows up for topspin, down for backspin, and perhaps clap with the tips for no-spin. (I'm making this up as I go along. Really.) Or use innocuous words of encouragement that mean something. However, all this is rather counter-productive as signaling a player over and over is a really good way to mess up their concentration as well as training them to not be able to think for themselves.

Derek (rate 2215, was 2234 before a bad Cary Cup) made it to the semifinals of Boys' Singles. There he faced Victor Liu (rated 2226). It was a seesaw battle, where one player seemed to dominate every game. Derek led 9-7 in the fifth. The last time these two had played (at the 2011 Nationals) Derek had led 9-6 in the fifth and lost five in a row. Two of the best times to call a time-out are when the player is losing focus, and when the player is serving and on the verge of winning an important game. In the latter case, you do so to make sure the player is completely focused and knows what serves to use to lock up the game. So I called a timeout - but Derek, feeling he was okay, shook it off. He lost the next four points, including an easy loop, a push, and an easy block. Sheer agony as he lost, 8,-5,7,-7,9. We'll never know if the timeout might have helped. Victor went on to win the final over Gal Alguetti at 13,7,9.

With Victor, Derek, and the Alguetti twins (Gal & Sharon, rated 2283 and 2271), I don't think we've ever had such a strong group of players at that age group, all 11 or 12. Add in Kanak Jha (2457) and Jack Wang (2329), who were one year too old for the Hopes Trials, and several others in the 2150-2200 range, and we have a powerhouse group coming up. Not to mention the twin towers on the girls' side of Crystal & Amy Wang! (No relation, though Amy is the younger sister of Allen, mentioned at the start.)

Brain Teasers at the Hopes Trials

It wasn't all table tennis, however. During the five-hour ride to and from the tournament, and also at meals, Derek and Crystal became addicted to brain teasers. I know hundreds of them, but I'd used many in past trips, and so began to make ones up. I think Derek may major in college in brain teasers.

Here are some brain teasers involving table tennis that I made up. Email me your answers, and tomorrow I'll publish whoever gets them right! (I made up many more, but can't remember them, alas.)

1. A player liked to play table tennis with various animals. He played a lion, a giraffe, a raccoon, and an elephant. Then he played another animal, but over and over the animal served wet balls. Why?
2. A player liked to play table tennis with various animals. He played a chimpanzee, a dog, an ostrich, and a snake. Then he played another animal, but over and over, rather than playing, the player would drop his paddle, fall to the ground, and lay still. Why?
3. A group of miners had dug tunnels to extract diamonds from the ground. They decided to set up a ping-pong table in their tunnel. The tunnel was exactly six feet wide, so just wide enough for the table and net (which extends six inches on both sides). It was very long, so there was plenty of room on each side. It was exactly thirty inches tall, and so just enough room for the table and net. However, once it was set up, they were unable to play. Why?
4. Here's a non-table tennis one I made up. Remember, this is being said out loud, so ignore the actual spelling. An old man with one hair went to a barber and asked him to cut the hair. The barber was outraged, and called the police. Why?

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers Featured by Australia TTA

Here's the article. Copies of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers are going fast!

Largest Club in the Country

The Westchester Table Tennis Club has been the largest full-time club in the country for several years, at 13,000 square feet with 18 tables. (My club, Maryland Table Tennis Center, is "only" 10,000, with 16 tables, alas. Though we sometimes jam in 18 tables for training.) However, a new club has just opened in Portland, Pure Pong, with 16,500 square feet and 20+ tables. Here's the article.

Table Tennista

Here are the headline international stories at Table Tennista.

• Zhang Jike & Ma Long Concerned For The Earthquake Victims (Photos)
• Chinese Team Gives Chance To Others For A Gold In Paris (Photos)
• European Table Tennis Players Are Amateurs
• Ma Long & Xu Xin Are The Hope Of Qin Zhijian In The Rio Olympics (Videos)
• André Ho And Lily Zhang Won The 2013 Ittf North American Cup! (Video)
• Orenburg Is Leader Of The Russian Premier League! (Videos)
• Ma Lin Teams With Timo Boll For The 2013 Chinese Super League! (Videos)
• Chinese Team Donates To The Victims Of Sichuan
• Liu Guoliang Terrified With The Earthquake In Sichuan
• Chinese Team's Closed Training Disrupted By Earthquake In Sichuan (Video)

Stiga Tisza Table Tennis Camp in Hungary

Here are three short videos from the camp.

• Multiball (3:37)
• Fitness (2:27)
• Training (1:09)

Training in China

Here's a training video (3:38) in China from Tony Table Tennis.

The Lord of the Ping

I think he's cupping his hand - but he doesn't have to follow no rules.

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I got back from the Hopes Trials in NY very late last night, and I'm exhausted. So I'll start blogging again tomorrow, including the Tip of the Week, which will likely be on PPPPPP - Proper Practice Progression Prevents Poor Play. Short version of the Hopes Trials (from my perspective) - the two players I coached were Crystal Wang (won Hopes Girls' Trials without losing a game) and Derek Nie (was up 9-7 in the fifth in the semifinals before losing to eventual winner Victor Liu). 

No Blog Tomorrow (Friday)

I'm off to the Hopes Trials in at the Westchester TTC in Pleasantville, New York. See you on Monday!

Hopes Trials at Westchester TTC in NY

I'm going up to coach the two Maryland players who qualified, Crystal Wang and Derek Nie. We've been training for this for weeks! I did a 90-minute session with Derek just last night, while other coaches worked with Crystal. What is it?

Every year the ITTF has Hopes Week. This year it's going to be at the Werner Schlager Academy in Austria, June 10-16. (I think it was there last year as well.) The best 11- and 12-year-olds from around the world will be invited there for a week of training, culminating in a tournament. The North American Hopes Trials are this weekend, coinciding with the North American Cup. Here are some info links:

• Home page for the 2013 North American Cup and Hopes Trials
• ITTF North American Hopes Trials home page
• Press Release for both
• ITTF Hopes Page

For the Hopes Trials, USATT chose the top four boys and girls born in 2001 or 2002, so they are all 11 or 12 years old. Canada did the same. (USA is only sending three girls - I don't think others applied - but the top two girls are going, Crystal Wang and Amy Wang, as are the top four boys. No, Crystal and Amy are not related.) Because ITTF requires a joint Trials for each continent, the Trials are combined. The top finishing player from each country then qualifies for Hopes Week. (So if USA players finish first and second, and a Canadian third, then the Canadian goes, not the #2 USA player. At least that's my understanding.)

BOYS
Gal Alguetti (NY, 2283)
Sharon Alguetti (NY, 2271)
Victor Liu (CA, 2226)
Derek Nie (MD, 2215)
Edison Huang (CAN)
Alexander Bu (CAN, 2093)
Edward Ly (CAN)
Boris Kalev (CAN)

GIRLS
Crystal Wang (MD, 2292)
Amy Wang (NJ, 2203)
Estee Ackerman (NY, 1721)
Benita Zhou (CAN)
Laura Yin Lai (CAN)
Sophie Gauthier (CAN)
Christian Lin (CAN)

Backswing Practice

Having trouble smashing against medium-high balls, or (for more advanced players) low topspin balls? One of the keys is to have the exact same backswing every time. Here's a way to learn to do that, as shown to one of my students last night. This is also how I developed my smash many years ago.

First, do a few smashes with someone (ideally have them feed multiball, or just serve topspin, they return the ball, and you smash), and when you make good ones, note where you backswing to. The question is how to repeat this over and over? Go near a wall and shadow practice the shot. Do your backswing just like you did in the good smashes. Then find a mark on the wall and move so the mark is just above where your racket is when you backswing. (You might have to put a mark on the wall yourself, alas.) Once you've done this, you can backswing to that same spot over and over. Get a feel for where the backswing should be. If you do this enough, it'll become so automatic that backswinging any other way will feel awkward.

Expert Table Tennis

Two new articles are up at Expert Table Tennis:

• How to Play a Forehand Push
• How to Play a Backhand Drive

Table Tennista

Lots of new international articles at Table Tennista, mostly featuring China. Here are the current front-page stories:

• Chinese Team's Lineup In Paris Isn't Final Yet (Video)
• Ma Lin Has The Outstanding Trait Of An Olympic Champion (Video)
• Xu Xin Fully Confident For The World Championships (Videos)
• Wang Nan & Her Suicidal Tendency (Photos)
• Xu Xin & Yan An Displayed High Quality Table Tennis (Video)
• Xu Xin Struggled Against Yan An In The Asian Cup (Videos)
• Liu Shiwen Aims To Be Undefeated Against Foreign Players In Paris (Video)
• Zhang Yining's Daughter Will Not Represent China In The Future
• Ryu Seungmin Out Of Paris 2013!
• China Confirmed Players For Paris 2013!

Table Tennis Spectacular

Here's a new video (1:54) of some nice exhibition play between Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson, with Dan Seemiller giving animated commentary.

Ping-Pong Ball in the Face

Here's a new video (25 sec) of someone getting smacked in the face by an opponent's mis-hit smash. Shown in slow motion!

One Twisted Table

Maybe they Hopes Trials should be held on these tables?

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USATT Goals

Wouldn't it be great if USA Table Tennis (or another national table tennis organization) came up with a specific lofty goal, made it their top priority, brought in the right people to design a program to reach that goal, and then put their resources behind achieving that goal? Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen due to the politics. If you try to focus on a top priority, all the other special interests want their piece of the pie, and so limited resources are instead spread out over a number of items, resulting in lots of weak programs instead of one or perhaps a few really good ones. Plus it's easier to implement easy stuff than to go for the hard stuff - and make no mistake, creating a lofty goal and trying to achieve it is no easy task. But it's a lot harder to achieve if it never becomes a goal. But I always hope that someday, somehow, someway, it'll happen.

No, I'm not volunteering - there was a time when I volunteered for everything. I could go on a rant here on what usually happened, but I'll refrain. Let's just say I don't have the time anymore.

Here are three possibilities, with a rough plan on how to achieve it. (Note that I didn't put "Create Olympic Gold Medalists" on the list - all three of these items would be a first step toward doing that, especially #1. The others bring in the revenue needed if we want to create top players, which is an expensive process.) 

1. Goal: 100 successful junior training programs.
   How: Recruit and train coaches to set up these programs. There's been a huge influx of Chinese coaches in recent years because professional table tennis coaching is such a lucrative field, but it'd happen a lot faster with USATT assistance. Right now it's developed rather haphazardly by word of mouth. If we sell it as a Profession, we can charge potential professional coaches for the training. (This is the primary purpose of the Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook.)
2. Goal: 100,000 members.
   How: Study the league structures used in overseas table tennis that leads to hundreds of thousands of members in Germany, England, France, and other countries (as well as similar leagues in other sports in the U.S. and around the world), bring in experienced league directors to design a U.S. version, and implement it on a regional basis. It could either be volunteer run, or the regional and local league directors would make a percentage.
3. Goal: Make the U.S. Open a premier event with tens of thousands of paid spectators and major TV coverage and revenue. (Another possibility: thousands of paid players.)
   How: Bring in experienced directors and promoters, and pay them a sizeable percentage of the revenue brought in by these increases. Too often in the past we've brought them in but only agreed to small commissions, and we ended up keeping 100% of nothing, rather than getting, say, 50% of a lot more.

Table Tennis Master

There are a number of good coaching articles in the Blog section of Table Tennis Master. Recent ones include "Special Tips for Developing Backhand"; "Common Mistakes in Forehand Technique"; "Encouraging Creativity in Table Tennis"; "How to Maintain Concentration"; and many more. There are a lot of sports psychology articles.

USATT Webpage Features Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

The USATT Web Page Features Page now has a link to the ITTF feature on Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.

Hawaiian Table Tennis

Here are two articles on Hawaiian table tennis that came out yesterday. "Never Too Early for Table Tennis" and "Athletic Chess." Both feature Hawaiian Coach Len Winkler and the local table tennis scene.

World Table Tennis Promo

Here's a promotional picture for the upcoming World Championships.

Dilbert Table Tennis

Yesterday morning's Dilbert comic strip featured table tennis - for the fifth time. Below are all five. These need to be printed out and taped to every wall in America.

• November 22, 2015
• April 16, 2013
• June 13, 2007
• August 12, 1995
• January 6, 1992
• September 7, 1989 (Dilbert in Action!)

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Tomahawk Serve

Recently someone asked me about why fewer players use the forehand tomahawk serve than before. (If you aren't sure what a forehand tomahawk serve, see video below of Matsudaira.) It was a much more popular serve back in the 1960s and 1970s. These days, however, the forehand pendulum serve (with racket tip down) has taken over in both its forms - regular and reverse. With a regular pendulum serve, the racket moves from right to left (for a righty). A reverse pendulum serves goes the opposite way. Regular pendulum serves dominate table tennis below the world-class level. However, at the world-class level, regular and reverse pendulum serves are about equally common. The latter is harder to learn, but is often more effective since players aren't as used to them - and even more effective if you can do both.

So why is the pendulum serve so popular, as compared to the tomahawk serve? 1) It allows them to serve both types of sidespin with roughly the same motion; 2) it's easier to serve very heavy backspin; 3) and they are just copying other top players. However, pendulum serves are way overused. Anyone developing a good tomahawk or other serve will give players problems as they aren't as used to it. If you are able to get heavy underspin (along with sidespin, side-top, and no-spin), and it's not obvious, then that's key to making the tomahawk serve effective at all levels. The same is true of the reverse pendulum serve - most players can't do it with heavy underspin, and when they do, it's too obvious. If you don't use it already, you should experiment with reverse pendulum serves so you can serve sidespin both ways.

For many below the higher levels, the tomahawk serve is a classic "trick" serve, where players serve it deep to the opponent's forehand so it breaks away from them, forcing numerous mistakes, i.e. free points. Advanced players have no problem looping these serves, but intermediate players struggle as the ball bounces away from them. As they reach for the ball, they tend to lower their racket, and so they end up lifting too much, and so the ball goes off they end. They also have trouble reacting to the sidespin, which pulls the ball to their left (if both players are righties), and so they have to aim to the right. (I seem to be plugging my Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers book these days, but it does have an entire section on returning these types of serves, in the chapter on Receive Tactics.)

Tomahawk serves are still used; I use it as a variation. Here's a segment from my blog on March 5, 2013:

The Amazing Tomahawk Serve of Kenta Matsudaira
Here's the video (1:09). Note how he can break it both ways - and see the side-by-side slow motion of the two versions. The real question for all you serious table tennis players: Why haven't you developed equally good serves? It's just a matter of technique and practice! If you don't have the technique, see a coach or watch videos and learn. (You don't need to match Kenta's serves - there are many other good serving techniques.) If you don't practice . . . well, then you'll never have the serve of Kenta Matsudaira, and you'll never be as good as you could have been. (This type of serve has been around for a long time. Dean Doyle specialized in this serve when he made the U.S. Pan Am Team over 30 years ago.)

Contest at Expert Table Tennis

Last week they ran a contest for a free autographed copy of my book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. The winner would be whoever could best explain why they deserved a free copy. And the winner is . . . Tom Lodziak from England!!! (His autographed copy goes out tomorrow.) To read his winning answer, see Expert Table Tennis. (While there, you can browse all their excellent coaching articles.) Yep, this is plug #2 for my book.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

What, you haven't bought your copy yet??? Here's the page to order it! Time for some friendly persuasion - not from me, from others. Here are some quotes and all 14 reviews so far at Amazon.com. Thirteen of the 14 reviews are 5-star; the other is 4-star. (Yep, this is plug #3 for my book! But there's a bunch of stuff after it, so feel free to browse past these quotes & comments. Or read them all.)

"Larry has done an excellent job in breaking down the skills needed by all players to improve in these areas. This book should be on every table tennis player’s mandatory reading list."
-Richard McAfee, USATT National Coach, ITTF Trainer, and USATT Coaching Chair, 2009-2013 

"Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is a must read for any player serious about winning. This tactical Bible is right on the mark, and is exactly how I was taught to put together game-winning tactics and strategies."
-Sean O'Neill, 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion, 2-time Olympian 

"Larry Hodges' book on table tennis tactics is the best I have ever seen on this subject. This is the first book that explains how to play against the many styles of the game."
-Dan Seemiller, 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion and long-time U.S. Men's Team Coach

Amazon.com Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe the Best Table Tennis Book Ever Written, April 15, 2013
By Eric M Hine
I have read almost every table tennis book that is available in the English language. Many have great suggestions about stroke techniques. Some have good suggestions as to basic tactics and strategy. This book, however, answered all the questions I had wondered about for years regarding strategy and tactics. It's obvious that Larry Hodges knows and loves the sport of table tennis, but even more importantly to a reader it is clear that he wants to pass this knowledge and love for this sport onto others. It's a great book that I will recommend to anyone interested in the great sport of table tennis.

4.0 out of 5 stars 
A MUST for table tennis players who play club and tournaments. April 14, 2013
By JTW
Very good reference book. A must for table tennis players who play at club or tournaments. Don't forget to get the update since that is a complete kindle version.

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Great Book from a Great Guy, April 5, 2013
By Kimberley Huff
Helped from the first page to the last, Great job Larry another sterling piece of work, Looking forward to your next book

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Playing smart, April 4, 2013
By Paul Wiltse (St. Paul, MN USA)
Mr. Hodges shares a lifetime of professional table tennis knowledge with you from start to finish. This book is well worth reading if you are really serious about becoming a top player. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in this fascinating game.

5.0 out of 5 stars 
For all skill levels, March 30, 2013
By debbieb
I am a low rated player and read this book easily, as it is written very clearly and easy for anyone to understand. I have put some of the information into action already and it has helped. My husband is a much better player than me as well as a USATT & ITTF Coach and he also read this book. He has suggested his students read this book and even carry it with them to a tournament for a quick refresher before their matches. Much of the information is known by the better players already, but Larry puts it all together so it is easy to find and all in one book. It is really a super reference tool. Including a chapter on hard bat and "funny" rubber surfaces adds to the value as most current players really need to better understand the way these surfaces play. I suggest every table tennis player have this book in their library. Bravo Larry. Aloha!

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Finally I can think! March 24, 2013
By Nicholas T Flor
I've been seeking this kind of insight for a long time. When it comes to analyzing my own match play, this is my handbook. I am very pleased with this book and am already changing the ways I approach playing the game.
Thanks Larry!

5.0 out of 5 stars 
mts288, March 22, 2013
By mts288
Best TT book I've ever read. It has all the stuff you don't get from your coach. If you have a problem with a certain style or equipment, Larry gives you the solution. A must read for any player at any level. Thanks Larry

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Very good book on under-covered subject. March 19, 2013
By Britt Salter
Larry covers a whole bunch of things that are barely - if at all - touched on. His writing is clear and concise. There is a good mix of humor, seriousness, technicality, and common sense.
One of the best TT books I've read!

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Great for the developing (or established) player! March 19, 2013
By Scott
Larry does a great job putting his many years of experience as both a high-level coach and player into this insightful and clearly written book. I've made this required reading for players I coach. Even after the first reading, this should be great as a reference to brush up on tactics and keep yourself on the right path to intelligent play.

5.0 out of 5 stars 
A tremendous amount of info! March 18, 2013
By Cubinican
Best money u can spend on information like this! Very clear and easy to read! Now when you train, you will know exactly what to work on!

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Highly recommended! March 15, 2013
By Feangfa Thaicharoen (Nonthaburi, Nonthaburi Thailand)
This book is the missing link between technical expertise and match outcome.

Usually, you perfect all the strokes without knowing why. This book puts those strokes into cohesive pattern. You will learn the distinction between strategic (for long-termed result) and tactical (for immediate result) thinking along the way.

After reading this book, you'll see tabletennis matches in different light. You'll appreciate the nuances of shot selection and the most important thing is you know "why" they use them.

A lot of examples in this book. Larry puts questions in between the narrative to make you "think".

Thanks, Larry, for writing this book. I'm an intermediate player without proper coach. Previously, I blindly practice strokes and drills without clear goal. In matches, I played blindly, instinctively. Most of the time, I didn't know why I won. And more importantly, I didn't know why I lost. So I had no way to improve my game. Your book gives meaning to my training. I'll train with strategic mind and compete with tactical thinking.

Finally, to answer your question, YES, Larry, you made me THINK. Thank you.

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Hard to find sources on tactics other than Mr. Hodges, March 14, 2013
By Seth Redford
I've been playing seriously for about two years so I am still learning the many important aspects of competitive Table Tennis. While searching the internet and other places I found a lot of information on technique but not much on tactics. This book is a fantastic resource that covers a wide variety of topics. I feel like it focused my thinking onto a number of important aspects that apply to each of the different shots and situations that you can face against each opponent. My only small issue is I have been following Mr. Hodges' blog and I have read a number of his articles and tips of the day. Since much of the information in those online sources was also included in the book, I had seen a lot of it before. But having it all in one place was well worth the price of the book.

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Great Resource For Improving Your Table Tennis Results, March 8, 2013
By TRW
This book may be the best table tennis book currently available for improving your table tennis results. Larry has packed it full information to get you thinking about what is going on in a game or match. Many players lose to players below their own level of play physically by being outplayed mentally. This collection of information is a great resource to short-cut the years of experience usually required to gain this level of strategy and tactics and be the player with the mental edge. Good Stuff!

5.0 out of 5 stars 
It Made Me Think! March 1, 2013
By Kyle Angeles
Very enjoyable read. The whole time I was reading this book, my mind would kind of drift off as I was picturing the aspects of my game in whatever part of the book I was reading.
Pros
The topics are laid out in a very logical order and explained in great detail.
The verbiage makes the book very conversational, so it doesn't drag on or feel like a sermon.
Many examples are used making it easy to visualize each subject.
Styles are broken down into various subsets - each containing their own goals and strategies
Excellent tactics are provided against a wide variety of styles - I highly recommend the section on non-inverted surfaces!
Cons
A little repetitive at times, but this kind of comes with the territory

World Cadet Challenge Selection Criteria

Here's the selection process for the 2013 Cadet Challenge, with dates and mandatory events.

Bacteria in Beer Pong

Here's a story about Clemson students finding lots of bacteria on ping-pong balls used in beer pong. You'll never play beer pong again.

Berlin Style Ping-Pong

Here's a video of Berlin Style Ping Pong (3:19), brought to you by Table Tennis Nation. (I often had some trouble understanding what the narrator was saying - it seemed a bit muffled.)

Table Tennis Glamour

Here are pictures of some glamorous table tennis outfits. (If Facebook won't let you see it, try this.)

USATT Minutes

(I usually end the blog with something short and fun, but this is rather long, and I'm afraid I'd lose people before they get to the short, fun stuff. So I'll end with this.)

The USATT motions from the March 25 teleconference are now online. (Plus you can browse past meetings and motions.) These were all committee appointments. Since there are so many names mentioned, I'm guessing most readers will know some of the people. Since so much work is done by committees, I'm putting in all the motions for readers to browse over

Approved at the March 25, 2013 telephonic meeting of the USATT Board of Directors

MOVED to continue Roman Tinyszin as Chair of the Officials and Rules Advisory Committee, waiving any implications of his two weeks committee service in 2007.

MOVED that the National Sanctioning Coordinator shall be appointed by the Board and shall not be subject to the term lengths and restrictions for standing committee members.

MOVED to approve Thomas Wintrich, Wendell Dillon, Lee Kondo, and Barney Reed (athlete) as members of the Tournaments Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Andrew Horn as the committee’s Liaison. (Larry Rose was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Ray Cavicchio, Elena Karshtedt, Lee Kondo, and Pam Fontaine (athlete) as members of the Officials and Rules Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Teodor Gheorghe as the committee’s Liaison. (Roman Tinyszin was approved as the Chair earlier in the March 25, 2013 meeting.)

MOVED to approve Rich Perez, Suzanne Butler, Gloria Brooks, and Khoa Nguyen (athlete) as members of the Seniors Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Michael Cavanaugh as the committee’s Liaison. (Gregg Robertshaw was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Lee Kondo, Amir Sadeghy, Larry Kesler, and Tahl Leibovitz (athlete) as members of the Ethics and Grievance Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Michael Cavanaugh as the committee’s Liaison. (Jim Coombe was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Peter Scudner, and Han Xiao (athlete) as members of the Compensation Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Michael Cavanaugh as the committee’s Liaison. (Mike Babuin was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Tom Poston, Ross Brown, Steve Hopkins, and Ty Hoff (athlete) as members of the Editorial Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Andrew Horn as the committee’s Liaison.6 6 Jim McQueen was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.

MOVED to approve Anne Cribbs, Mike Babuin, and Ed Levy (athlete) as members of the Audit Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Deborah Gray as the committee’s Liaison. (Peter Scudner was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Dean Johnson, Jay Tuberville, Jeffery D. Morrison, and Carlos Ko (athlete) as members of the Hardbat Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Teodor Gheorghe as the committee’s Liaison. (Alberto Prieto was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Peter Scudner, Anne Cribbs, Mike McAllister, and Tahl Leibovitz (athlete) as members of the Marketing and Fund Raising Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Michael Cavanaugh as the committee’s Liaison. (Jim Kahler was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED to approve Lisa Hagel, Ben Bednarz, Bruce Liu, and Barney Reed (athlete) as members of the Clubs Advisory Committee for the January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014 term, and to designate Joyce Grooms as the committee’s Liaison. (Attila Malek was approved as the Chair on February 4, 2013.)

MOVED that the Chairs of the Junior Advisory Committee and League Advisory Committee will be decided via email prior to the Board’s April 20, 2013 meeting.

MOVED to appoint Mike Babuin (Chair), Peter Scudner, Dennis Taylor, and Han Xiao (athlete) as members of a Bylaw Review Task Force. Recommendations of the Task Force are due by July 31, 2013.

Respectfully submitted,
Dennis M. Taylor
Secretary

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Tip of the Week

Playing the Big Backhand Player.

Incentive

Yesterday I was coaching a 6-year-old. I've been working with him for a while, but his hand-eye coordination make learning difficult. For example, despite months of trying, he can rarely bounce a ball on his paddle more than two or three times. He also has great difficulty timing serves - the timing of throwing a ball up and hitting it accurately is difficult for kids that age - and he can rarely serve two balls in a row successfully. (His record is four in a row.)

Because of his difficulties in learning, he quickly loses patience if he doesn't get it quickly. He also is obsessed with Star Wars, and I made the mistake of letting him know what a big fan I was as well. It's often all he wants to talk about. Sometimes he insists I call him Yoda. He often tries to steer practice sessions into Star Wars question and answer sessions.

I often challenge him to do as many forehands or backhands as possible. His record on the forehand (when I feed multiball, which is easier than hitting them "live") was an even 40, but that was sort of fluky; his second most was about ten or fifteen. His backhand record is 18. His interest in getting as many in a row as possible is erratic.

I came up with an idea a few days ago. I created a chart, "Anton's Chart," where I listed his records for most forehands and backhands in a row, both with multiball and live, as well as ball bouncing, ball balancing (where he sees how long he can balance the ball on his racket while I time it), and how many serves he can do in a row. At the start of our lesson yesterday I brought out the chart, and taped it to the wall. His eyes went wide.

Suddenly he had a goal. Normally we work on a lot of things during each session, but he decided for some reason that he was going to break his forehand record. And so we ended up doing nothing but forehands for 45 minutes! That broke by about 40 minutes his record for focusing on something. The result was he broke the record twice - first with 55 in a row, and then with 64 in a row.

Even after he got the 64 he wanted to keep playing forehands. Why? Because I had explained to him that in table tennis, it's often said you don't have a forehand or backhand until you hit 100 in a row. And I promised him that if he ever did 100 in a row, I'd print out a nice certificate with his name on it and saying what he'd done. He was determined!!!

He didn't get 100 this time, but he was excited to break his record twice, and to be able to write in his new record on his chart. I have a feeling we'll be hitting a lot of forehands until he gets that 100, and then we'll move on to the backhand.

Ball balancing wasn't on the original chart. I added it as his insistence. We spent ten minutes on this as he kept trying to increase his record, finally getting it up to 5.46 seconds. (This, and ball bouncing, are difficult for kids his age, and so great practice in developing hand-eye coordination, but now that he's got a goal, he'll probably learn faster.)

I think the next step is to tell him that in table tennis, you don't really have a serve until you can do, say, twenty in a row. Right now he can't do that, but I bet this way he'll learn fast!

USA College Championships

They were held this past weekend in Rockford, IL. Here's the home page, with results, articles, and video. Here are the new National Champions:

• Men's Singles: Emil Santos, Texas Wesleyan University
• Women's Singles: Jiaqi Zheng, Northwest Polytechnic University
• Men's Doubles: Grant Li & Justin Huang, University of Southern California
• Women's Doubles: Sara Hazinski & Claudia Ikezumi, Texas Wesleyan University
• Coed Team: Texas Wesleyan University
• Women's Team: Texas Wesleyan University

Pongcast 25

Here's the video (17:29), which covers the Korean Open.

What Makes Zhang Jike Beatable

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master on this. Three reasons are given, involving a tendency to take the ball late, attitude, and pressure.

Table Tennista

As usual, there's a host of new international articles on Table Tennista, including Liu Guoliang's sarcastic humor, Zhang Jike criticized by his father, and the Asian Cup.

Tina Lin to Worlds

Here's an article on New Jersey's junior star Tina Lin.

Adam Scott Wins Masters, Plays Ping-Pong

Here's the article and video (5sec) from Table Tennis Nation.

Buried in Ping-Pong Balls

Here's a picture of a woman literally buried in ping-pong balls. (I'm guessing it's actually in a swimming pool, with the balls floating on top. Or perhaps not. (If Facebook doesn't let you see this, try here.)

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